Status

Summary

This enactment amends the Canada Elections Act to prohibit any person from transmitting an election advertising message to the public by means of a television or Internet broadcast unless the broadcast contains closed captioning for the hearing impaired.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to introduce this bill that would amend the Canada Elections Act to compel all political parties to include closed captioning in their political ads during a federal election. This would apply to all television ads and political advertising on the Internet.

Hearing impaired Canadians do not have full access to the democratic process in the event of a federal election. That is a shame. We need to change that. In many provinces political parties agree to do closed captioning and in some provinces it is legislated. Federally it is not. It should be to ensure equality for hearing impaired Canadians.